Generally, shoes such as sneakers have a shoelace connected in zigzag pattern to be closely adhered to the foot of a user. Such shoelace is pulled and fastened to thereby adhere the shoes to the foot of a user and ensure a comfortable walk.
A user should choose shoes in a proper size to prevent the shoes from being taken off from the foot, and should put on the shoes while the shoelace is loosely tied to the shoes. However, the shoelace should be fastened according to the size of the foot to the extent not pressing the foot while walking to secure the health of the foot.
However, fastening or unfastening the shoelace whenever a user puts on or takes off the shoes is troublesome and a user usually puts on the shoes by properly tying the shoelace except for the special case. In this case, however, the shoelace may be untied while walking and a user should stop walking and tie the shoelace again. Even if the shoelace is not untied, both end parts of the shoelace are not fixed and thus an indecent image may be caused and this is even so when the shoelace is long.
Further, it is not easy to tie and untie the shoelace for lower graders at elementary schools and preschool children and seniors. In particular, in the case of cycling race players or mountain climbers, both end parts of the unfixed shoelace or the shoelace untied by intense movements or external object may cause undesirable result such as worse performance results or occurrence of accident and the shoelace should be prevented from being untied.
During break from exercise, a user may take a rest fully when the tightly fastened shoelace is easily untied. Preferably, the shoelace should be easily fastened, maintain the fastened status and at the same be unfastened easily whenever necessary.
To ensure easy fastening and unfastening of the shoelace, apparatuses for easily fastening the shoelace have been developed. Korean Patent No. 598627 which has been filed by the present applicant discloses a shoelace fastener which employs a ratchet gear. A user should turn a rotating member and wind the shoelace and then push to one side, and grabs, a stopper with his/her hand when unfastening the shoelace. This causes inconvenience and is difficult to use for children or seniors or the underprivileged.
If a user does not properly push the stopper to one side when unfastening the shoelace, the unfastening process is suspended and thus reliability of the shoelace fastener deteriorates. If an additional stopper fixing member is installed within the rotating member to solve the foregoing problem, the structure is complicated and the number of parts used for manufacturing the shoelace fastener increases and productivity is significantly decreased.